


Time to Save Your Own

by onlytheshortones



Series: The Back Nine [1]
Category: Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-23
Updated: 2014-09-23
Packaged: 2018-02-18 12:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2347910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlytheshortones/pseuds/onlytheshortones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was not the first time he’d woken up outside Veronica’s apartment, but it was the first time he’d done so bleeding. It was also the first time the door was open.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time to Save Your Own

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short one-shot from my headcanon for the lost nine years. Nothing should be out of canon, though there may be some things outside general accepted agreements.
> 
> This particular piece takes place in March 2008.

It was not the first time he’d woken up outside Veronica’s apartment, but it was the first time he’d done so bleeding. It was also the first time the door was open. He groaned a little as he stood up. His head was pounding and he could taste blood in his mouth.

“Logan?” He turned towards the open door. Keith Mars was standing by the kitchen counter. Logan nodded in recognition and shame.

“Why don’t you come in for some breakfast?” His eyes were full of pity that almost made Logan say no, but when he inhaled he could smell bacon, so he nodded and came inside.

Keith handed him a saucepan of hot water and a washcloth. Logan accepted it and pressed it to his split lip.

“You okay?” Keith asked, bustling around the kitchen.

“Stings like hell,” Logan answered.

“That wasn’t my question.”

Logan sighed. Keith handed him a plate, and turned back to the stove, flipping the bacon over. He didn’t press, just spatulaed some bacon and eggs onto Logan’s plate.  
The toast popped up in the toaster just in time for Keith to add it to the plates as he sat at the counter next to Logan. Logan shifted uncomfortably. Sitting so close to Keith felt strangely intimate. He ignored his discomfort and ate quietly, waiting for Keith to begin whatever talk it was he wanted to have.

“How are you doing, Logan?”

He chuckled. “Top of the world, yourself?”

Keith didn’t smile. “Logan.”

He raised his eyebrows. “What do you want me to say?”

“The truth should suffice.”

Logan laughed once, darkly. “Isn’t my turning up outside your door once a week enough truth for you?”

Keith sighed. “She wouldn’t want to see you like this.”

“She doesn’t know?” Logan asked.

Keith shook his head. “No. She doesn’t know,” he confirmed.

Logan let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “Thanks.”

“Do you really think her not knowing makes it any less pathetic?”

Logan bit back a few retorts. This guy hit hard. “No, I guess not.”

“Maybe the better solution is to clean your life up?”

Logan chuckled again. “Another member of the Mars family, disappointed in me.”

Backup raised his head from his spot on the couch.

“Are you disappointed in me, boy?” Backup wagged his tail at Logan’s voice, then put his head back down and closed his eyes.

Silence.

“I’m not disappointed in you, Logan.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” Logan tried to keep the hurt out of his voice, tried to keep the anger level. “You’d have to have at least decent expectations of me to be disappointed.”

Keith let out a long sigh. Logan stabbed the last of his eggs with his fork. He was sure this man had seen him cry, but he didn’t remember it, and he was damn sure going to keep it that way.

“I gotta tell you, this place gets more accommodating every time I stay,” Logan mumbled, pointing to the breakfast, weak humor Keith did not laugh at. “Um…I guess I never did say thanks. For this. And the doughnuts.”

Keith nodded. Logan couldn’t stand the look of pity in his eyes anymore and rose to go.

“Logan.”

He paused, turned back. Keith was standing now too, a few paces from his chair as though chasing Logan.

“You’re a good kid. You’re better than this.”

Logan laughed. “Yeah, since when?”

“Since you saved my daughter’s life.”

 _Yeah, which time?_ He bit it back again, shook his head once.

“Yes Logan, you did. And now it’s time to save your own.”

Logan swallowed. “Wow. Did you get that from the cliché of the month calendar?”

“No, I got it from your answering machine,” Keith shot back, and for a second, he was his daughter, and it was too much, and Logan looked away.

Keith sensed the moment and cleared his throat. “That’s the end of my hospitality, Logan. Next time I find you out on my porch, I’m calling the sheriff.”

“Because he usually takes so kindly to your calls,” Logan smirked.

“Laugh now. But you’ll be missing those doughnuts when you’re watching through bars while Vinnie Van Lowe eats a couple dozen powdered.”

Logan looked him in the eyes.

“You deserve better, son.” Keith clapped him on the back and lifted the plates off the counter.

Logan watched him for a moment before he left.


End file.
